Windows PowerShell™ 2.0 Best Practices

Appendix D. Useful WMI Classes

WITH MORE THAN 2,000 Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes installed on a modern Windows operating system, the problem is not what you can use in a script but rather what you should script. Some WMI classes return a lot of information, but for all practical purposes, the information is basically useless. It makes sense to hone in on the WMI classes that produce the most valuable information. The lists in this appendix are not exhaustive lists of classes but rather are lists of the WMI classes that I have used repeatedly over the last few years.

Table D-1. Cooling Device Classes

CLASS	PROPERTIES	METHODS
Win32_Fan Represents the properties of a fan device in the computer system.	22	3
Win32_HeatPipe Represents ...